Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
CC License:
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Unique ID: LANCUM-55B474
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Post Medieval 1500 to 1700AD cast lead or lead alloy inscribed tablet, a miniature horn book showing the alphabet. Line 1 is - ABCDE; Line 2 is - FGHIK; Line 3 is - LMNOP; Line 4 is - QRSTV; Line 5 is - WXYZ. The last line is a square hatched border, three squares high and eleven squares wide. Based on the contents and style of the alphabet, probably dates to between c1500 and c1700 AD.
Similar objects on the database include SOM-5408E1, YORYM-FA8FF1, LVPL-69A2E4, SWYOR-B234D7, and NMGW-E9EC71 (nearly complete).
Full-size horn books were teaching tablets that usually contained the alphabet or the Lord's Prayer and which became available during the 16th century. Although the term 'horn book' is commonly used for lead tablets, it is a slightly misleading name. True horn books were made out of wood onto which the printed paper would have been mounted, and then covered with a thin sheet of transparent horn for protection. The lead tablets are far smaller, and would probably have been either toys (Lewis 2012, 98-101) or cheaper versions of the full-size hornbooks.
The length is 47mm, the width is 38mm and the weight 23.90g.
Class:
hornbook
Inscription:
ABCDE / FGHIK / LMNOP / QRSTV / WXYZ
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Exactly AD 1500
Date to: Exactly AD 1700
Quantity: 1
Weight: 3.62 g
Diameter: 18 mm
Date(s) of discovery: Thursday 4th August 2016 - Thursday 4th August 2016
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4 Figure: SD3427
Four figure Latitude: 53.73519303
Four figure longitude: -3.00199719
1:25K map: SD3427
1:10K map: SD32NW
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.